My mother recently got several head of sheep to use for training her herding dogs. She bought a shepherds crook from a local guy and she asked me to shorten it a big and to do something special to it to spice it up a little. After I got to looking at it, I noticed not a lot of time and love were spent on it, just kinda thrown together. I decided to leave the one she bought as it was, and build her a completely new one for Christmas.
Last year I built my dad and two brothers hatchets out of a hickory that I fell from my parents property. I had some hickory left and decided that my mother should have a piece as well, I used it for the staff part. Some knots revealed themselves as I worked the stave down, but really like how they brought some character to it.
The hook part was cut it of a piece of maple burl, it's got birdseye and curly grain in it.
Buffalo horn was used as a spacer between the two woods, and also as a cap for the bottom.
To finish it off, I bought a couple small turquoise earrings (her favorite kind of jewelry) and cut the studs off and set them in the knot holes for a subtle touch.
